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Richard Pankhurst Addis Ababa THE SHORT-LIVED NEWSPAPER ABYSSINIA (1935ñ1936): A MEMORY OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, on 3 October 1935, was important not only for the two protagonists, but also for the wider international community. In- sight into the impact of the conflict on the League of Nations, and on public opinion in its principal member state, Great Britain, can be seen in the pages of a today little-known newspaper entitled Abyssinia.1 This publication, which ran for a little short of four months, but achieved a circulation of no less than 90,000 copies a week, was one of the first to be devoted — even though tangentially — to Ethiopia, and deserves a place in the history of political literature on the country. The newspaper was issued by the principal — and very prestigious — British non-governmental internationalist association: the League of Nations Union, which had been founded after World War I to rally support for the then new League of Nations. The Union, since 1920, had published a month- ly promotional newspaper entitled Headway, which bore the self explicatory sub-title «The Journal of the League of Nations Union». Faced with the Fas- cist invasion of Ethiopia at the beginning of October 1935, which was to test the League of Nations to breaking point, the Union on 23 October issued a special 4-page supplement to Headway. Entitled Enforcing Peace, it was en- 1 For the background to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia see ANGELO DEL BOCA, The Ethiopian War 1935–1941, Chicago and London 1965; and ANTHONY MOCKLER, Haile Selassie’s War, London 1984. On British public opinion towards the war see GAETANO SALVEMINI, Prelude to World War II, London 1953; FRANK HARDIE, The Abyssinian Crisis, London 1974; DANIEL WALEY, British Opinion and the Abyssinian War 1935–1936, London 1975; RICHARD PANKHURST, Sylvia Pankhurst: Counsel for Ethiopia a Biographical Essay on Ethiopian, Anti-Fascist and Anti-Colonial History 1934–1960, Hollywood, California, 2003; and INALCO (ed.), La guerre d’Ethiopie et l’opinion mondiale 1934–1941, Paris 1986. On the history of the Ethiopian and related press see RICHARD PANKHURST, «The History of Education, Printing, News- papers, Book Production, Libraries and Literacy in Ethiopia», Ethiopia Observer 6 (1962), 321–389; and RICHARD PANKHURST, «“Correspondance d’Ethiopie”: The History of a Pro-Ethiopian Newspaper (1926–1933)», in: VERENA BÖLL — DENIS NOSNITSIN — THOMAS RAV E — WOLBERT SMIDT — EVGENIA SOKOLINSKAIA (eds.), Studia Aethiopica. In Honour of Siegbert Uhlig on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Wiesbaden 2004, 203–219. 266 Scrinium I (2005). Varia Aethiopica visaged as a weekly newspaper, but only one issue in fact appeared, for it was replaced, on 20 November, by a supplement with the entirely different name Abyssinia. This latter publication, with which we are here concerned, ap- peared weekly, and, like its short-lived predecessor, ran to four pages. Pro- duced in the flush of popular British anti-war enthusiasm it was given what was to turn out the over-optimistic sub-title A Weekly Newspaper of the League of Nations in Action [sic]. It was from the bibliographical point of view some- what bizarrely referred to as «No. 2» (being in effect treated as a sequel to the earlier one-issue supplement Enforcing Peace). Efforts were made to give the new publication a large and influential rea- dership. An advertisement in the paper stated that copies would be posted free-of charge to anyone so requesting. The newspaper Abyssinia, despite its title, published virtually no information about the history, economy, politics or culture of that country, and nothing on the Fascist military operations therein. The paper, as perhaps befitted an organ of the League of Nations Union, confined itself to defending the League’s action (or inaction) in relation to the invasion — and devoted much of its attention to the question of League of Nations Sanctions against the aggressor, Italy. Sanctions were then of major international interest, the more so as they had up to that time had never been applied. Defence of the League also led the paper on occasion into discus- sions on the question of Ethiopian slavery, which the Italian Government used as a justification, or excuse, for its invasion. Curiously, in view of the publication’s pro-Ethiopian stance, no mention was made of the invader’s use of mustard gas, though this had by then been widely reported in the Bri- tish and international press. The scope and character of the paper was laid down in its first issue, for 20 November, which carried a front-page article entitled «Peace and the Par- ties», by the Union’s President, Viscount Cecil, in which he declared that the «Abyssinian crisis» was «far from over». Writing in the aftermath of a Bri- tish General Election, which had returned a large Conservative majority, he warned that pledges issued at such times were «not always kept», and argued that there was therefore «no time to rest», for «the price of peace, no less than liberty», was «eternal vigilance». A further article on «Sanctions in Force» argued that 15 November of that year (1935) was «a crucial date» in the history of the League, for it was «the first time» that member states were «required to fulfil their obligations» by taking «drastic action against a Great Power [i. e. Italy] guilty of aggression». The article went on to assert that no fewer than 53 states had agreed to impose Sanctions. Another article, entitled «The Right Answer» (which was continued in the next issue) addressed itself to various points which «puzzle[d] the man in the street». The article thus sought to dispel such doubts as whether Sanctions against Italy would lead to a European war, or prove a greater burden on Britain than on Italy. A final article in that first issue, headed «The Fascist Considers Life as Battle», quo-.

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